Positively Phoebe

I know I posted that I made a shop on Cafe Press.  Well, I wasn't the only one who ordered something... Mum & "Knitting" Dad So Cute!!!  Xxo, Phoebe

So I drove all the way out to some new Cleveland Clinic campus out in Avon today to see Dr. Williams.  I am collecting doctors like an old person, I swear. I went through the standard questions with the nurse before he came in - I pretty much know them all by heart, now.  They usually get tripped up on the date of my last period being last November, but the girl today actually just asked, "Do you still even get a period?" which was a surprising change. When Dr. Williams came in, I was reminded of something a friend of mine who recently had to have a colonoscopy said about it being unfair that all ass-related doctors are hot.  Cue Dr. Williams.  I don't know what I was expecting, but a cute, young black man was not it.  I explained all my symptoms and he started to tell me to get undressed from the waist down and cover up with the sheet on the exam table, but I was like, "Dude.  I know this part after all I went through these last few months."  He l...

The candles mum and I lit for Lacey and baby Sullivan at San Marco in Florence. Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella - 400 year old pharmacy, still selling the same products! This is the place I went back to for the "perfume" I could not get out of my head. Hotel. Dome. Hotel. My sister, Wendy.  She did not break anything. Lovely little block across from Pitti Palace. I missed my pups while I was away.  This guy made me homesick. There weren't many flowers blooming yet at Boboli Gardens, but these were nice... Everything is just so damn quaint! Even the sewer drain things are precious! I am not big on grottoes.  But there are definitely plenty of them over there. This one at least had some rad frescoes in it. Even the walkways were beautiful in areas of the Boboli Gardens. ...and I was so thirsty, too.   CRAZY trees. There were all these white flowers on this one hillside, and then these two ...

I have a doctor appointment with a new doctor.  For someone who used to have to be on the verge of death to go to the doctor, I sure have become little miss something's-wrong-i-need-a-doctor-NOW!  Dr. Williams (who I didn't realize when I made the appointment, is located in Avon at some schmancy new Colo-Rectal Specialty joint.  Yeah.  That's right.  I'm off to the butt doctor today. Seems that all of the damage the external radiation did to my lady basement is not really healing up on it's own. So my dear Dr. Kebria referred me to this dude to check out what's wrong with my rump. I am NOT excited.  Definitely hoping no one says the word "colonoscopy" to me today.  *shudder*  But honestly, I'll go for whatever needs to be done because what is currently going on down there is kind of a nightmare.  I'm still in a lot of pain whenever I have to poop, there seems to be unhealed tears, that pesky hemorrhoid hasn't gone back where it came ...

This is the start of my pictures from the Florence leg of our voyage.  Excluding the day trip through Tuscany, Florence was my favorite city we stayed in.  It was just beautiful. Saw this all over Florence.  Liked it. The skies were an unholy blue. Beautiful place facing the Arno River. One hell of a rooftop deck. The River Arno!! (Ponte Vecchio in the distance.) Awesome building.  Just some apartments, I think. Duomo!!! Just incredible... We could kind of see the Campanile from our hotel room window.  Barely. So much beauty. Pietre Dure.  That's a (FLAT!!) tabletop.  All individually cut pieces of semi-precious stone.  Incredible!! This reminded me of Ryan... I dream of a yellow house... Bicycle buddy! Lots of old bikes with chain covers on them.  The ladies there ride in skirts! Great little storefront. Fiat! Hi!  You're cute! Like I said ...

I got home from work yesterday to an email from my brother, Steve , that just said: Sitting here, crying, and reading this. http://boingboing.net/2012/04/ 18/on-cost-and-cancer-in- america.html Weird thing is, the woman who wrote it - I emailed her earlier that day.  I started following her on twitter after my treatments were over and I felt like I was mentally able to go searching online for other cancer survivors, patients, etc.  (I was NOT up to this at all DURING treatment.  Not even a little...)  Again with the serendipity thing.  But that's not my point today. My point today is that it was a struggle to read this entire article.  In fact, if we're being honest here, I couldn't read it all.  One, because it was just SO UPSETTING.  And two, as I got into reading it, I realized that I had no idea what MY cancer cost has been so far.   So I logged onto my insurance company's website, and grabbed a calculator.  It's ha...

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive.  You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain.  When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about..." -Haruki Murakami